Naruto: End of the 2nd Endless Conflict
by SinbadThe3rd
Summary: In the end Malthael had succeeded in his plan to wipe out humanity, yet it only caused more problems in the future. The Angels have given up their power to repopulate the world and for a time things turned out okay, but history has a way of repeating itself if given enough time...


(A/N: I am going to be honest from the start and say that I am doing this story as a spur of the moment thing. It seems like all of my stories are form crossovers that no one else is doing as much, my first story was a Guilty Gear crossover and there are only 7 of them with mine being the most popular. This is a Diablo crossover and there are only 17 of them. Now I'm going to be honest here and say that I played Diablo 2 way too much in the past with a group of friends. Yet over the years I have lost contact with mostly all of them because of various reasons such as moving away, raising families so they no longer have the free time to play, or in the worst case, death. In my life I have lost 57 people who I cared about and have mourned all of them for years and I will always remember the good times. So when Blizzard announced Diablo 3, I wasn't going to play it since I lost the will to continue on with the story. Yet I recently played it because a newer friend of mine needed help with something and to do so I had to create a character after he bought me a copy of the game, which I played as the Demon hunter class, not sure why I always use bows and arrows in games but I do and I enjoy it, and once leveled up high enough I was able to help and I completed the story and as I did, I thought up a crossover story on the fly as I finished it… Enjoy! Also going to try and do this all in one long chapter or at least in two chapters…)

 **(Warning – Major Spoilers for the Diablo games, first part of the story is the complete plot of the series leading up to the 2** **nd** **reset of the world which never happened in game, so be warned it's a bit of a slow start so if you know the story of the series skip all this until you see another bit of bold writing that will say that the story is of my own design at that point…)**

Since the birth of reality itself, the High Heavens and the Burning Hells have waged an endless war for anything of value within their realms of order and chaos. No side had gained much of anything at all for long, and, in their struggle, have often destroyed much of what they sought to claim. It was referred to as The Great Conflict, and all other wars and events, like The Sin War, fell under it.

The story began with Inarius, a powerful angel and member of the Angiris Council of the High Heavens. Tired of the constant fighting, he saw little point in their infinite war they were waging against Hell. Convinced that there must be others such as him in both Heaven and Hell, Inarius starts to search for other individuals who share his views on the war. To his surprise there were many such as himself, and together with Lilith, daughter of Mephisto, he led a great exodus. Together, they defected from Heaven and Hell and searched for another place to live in peace. They succeeded in stealing the Worldstone, and performed two tasks which above all others would forever affect the course of history:

Created Sanctuary, the world of men, as a paradise and refuge from the Great Conflict.

Create the Nephalem, the first humans

To protect this newly formed world from both Heaven and Hell, they used the stolen Worldstone as a means to defend it. It acted as a protective barrier, and effectively prevented angels and demons from either directly invading Sanctuary or noticing its existence at all. How exactly it worked remained unclear, even to those who used it in the first place, but work it did.

The two races of Heaven and Hell tried to live peacefully with each other on Sanctuary, and even mated with each other, spawning the first generation of humans, called the Nephalem. It quickly became apparent that the Nephalem were as powerful as their parents, and had the potential to be much, much more than any angel or demon. This caused struggle among the higher beings. Inarius wanted to kill the humans, as he viewed them as a threat to their own existence. Lilith, on the other hand, wanted to raise the Nephalem to an army and have them fight both Heaven and Hell. The two began fighting, and Inarius cast out Lilith from Sanctuary and imprisoned her in The Void, claiming Sanctuary as his own. Many of the Nephalem were slain during this time, but some survived, like Bul-Kathos and Rathma. The latter became the servant of Trag'Oul, a mystical dragon, and future guardian of Sanctuary.

As time went on, the Prime Evils of Hell discovered Sanctuary. Immediately realizing the potential of humanity as a weapon against Heaven, they created a religion called The Triune there to lure humans to their side. Inarius thus similarly set up his own Cathedral of Light to combat the Three Prime Evils. The two forces battled behind the scenes with each other on Sanctuary, while Heaven remained unknowing of Sanctuary's existence. The two religions waged a constant but seemingly petty war against each other, and the world was more or less unaffected. The two churches meddled in the everyday lives of humans sometimes, but none except for the most high-ranking of the church servants knew the true identities between the religions. That all changed when Lilith broke free of her prison. Returning to Sanctuary, she once again sought to use the humans to her own advantage and conquer both Heaven and Hell.

In these events, a man named Uldyssian, a distant descendant of Inarius and Lilith, got caught in her plots. Unbeknownst to him, Lilith gave him magical powers and framed him. Making it appear as though he had slain the servants of both the Triune, and the Cathedral of Light. Lilith disguised herself as a human named Lylia, and snared Uldyssian into doing as she wished. Uldyssian thought that these powers lay latent in all humans, and, followed by Mendeln, his younger brother, Serenthia, a longtime family friend infatuated with Uldyssian and the daughter of the merchant Cyrus, and Achilios, a childhood friend and archer, fled the town of Seram fearing for their lives. The very people who were once close friends and neighbors turned upon Uldyssian fearing his new abilities, and what it seemed that he did with them. Uldyssian blamed the Triune, and the Cathedral for the predicament he was in and so set off to awaken these powers in others, that they might live in a world of their own crafting, not the Triune or Cathedral. The venture was a struggle at first, but with the unknown aid from Lilith, more and more people were found who could use magic, and they gathered under Uldyssian. They became known as the Edyrem, with Uldyssian as their leader.

These actions brought with them turmoil. Lucion, leader of the Triune and son of Mephisto, sent formidable enemies to hunt down Uldyssian, among them Malic, Damos, Gulag and Astrogha (the latter who also appears in other novels, most notably Moon of the Spider).

Mendeln, during this time, was noticed by Rathma. Rathma was the son of Inarius and Lilith, and the first servant of Trag'Oul, a great dragon connected to Sanctuary but aligned with neither Heaven nor Hell. Rathma trained Mendeln as an apprentice, and they are the first two Necromancers.

Lilith in the meantime understood that her plans could not be achieved unless something was done with the Worldstone. The crystal had been created by Inarius to both shield the world and to limit the powers of humans. So long as it still stood, no human army of hers would ever wage war with Heaven or Hell. Uldyssian however was brought there, and after a brief brawl with Bul'Kathos, he was allowed into the Worldstone Chamber with Rathma as his companion. After killing bat-like demons Rathma, though doubtful he would succeed, suggested Uldyssian attempt to change the worldstone to better favor him and his people. What he did astonished Rathma, and later Inarius as well. Uldyssian had altered the structure of the crystal, something not even Inarius could undo. This change had monumental consequences, and not only stopped the weakening of the Nephalem, but in fact sped up the growth of their powers.

Eventually Inarius was dragged into the conflict. The tyrant ruler of Sanctuary, he had considered himself above Uldyssian and refused to come into direct contact with him. Because of that belief, he sent his trusted assistant Gamuel to assassinate Uldyssian. The plot failed and Inarius resorted to even more desperate measures, a pact with Diablo himself. At this point, the human's powers had grown immensely, and a confrontation was imminent. Initially Inarius did not view Uldyssian as much of a threat, but as his efforts to stop the human continued to fail, Inarius became more and more desperate (though he refused to admit as much to himself). At this time, Inarius was approached by Diablo, and the Prime Evil offered him a pact. Together the two sought to defeat Uldyssian and his Edyrem. At the same time, Tyrael discovered Sanctuary, and soon thereafter the High Heavens was notified of the existence of this world.

The High Heavens viewed Sanctuary and its inhabitants as an abomination to existence, and acted accordingly, sending their armies directly to Sanctuary. Trag'Oul, the guardian of Sanctuary, used his immense power to shield Sanctuary's location from the angels but he could not hold it forever. Uldyssian and Inarius also clashed, and that battle is without a doubt the fiercest battle that has ever taken place on the face of Sanctuary, and likely ever will. Both wielded the strength of gods, and continually changed the landscape surrounding them as they battled. As they fought, a tear appeared in the sky as the hosts of angels finally reached and invaded Sanctuary. Soon after, Uldyssian's entire body infused with energy, he acquired a higher understanding of Sanctuary itself and easily broke the bond between Inarius and the Worldstone. Inarius, without the immense amount of power to draw upon was easily defeated by Uldyssian, and trapped in a prison until the Angiris Council further decided his fate. Soon after the angels reached Sanctuary, Tyrael found Uldyssian and shackled him. Demons of the Burning Hells, determined not to let the angels destroy what they sought to exploit, erupted onto the landscape and a three way battle commenced. The angels battling on one side, the demons on the other, and the Edyrem stuck in the middle. Uldyssian still shackled, was forced to watch his people as they fought against both angel and demon. Overcome with emotion, he finally broke free of Tyrael's bonds and demanded the armies to stop. Surprisingly, they all became frozen in time. Uldyssian then cleared the angels and the demons from his world. He began changing the landscape back to how it was before all the destruction had taken place. As he did so, his powers refused to cooperate and instead destroyed the environment where he was trying to fix it. He realized the only thing he could do was to draw the destruction into himself, and so with all his might he did so. Finally, after taking in all the destruction that Sanctuary had suffered, Trag'Oul guided him to The Void to release it.

After the battle, a gathering was held between the Angiris Council and Mephisto. Sanctuary was all but destroyed, but all hope was not lost. Some, like Rathma, pleaded with Heaven to spare Sanctuary. A vote was held between the Angels. Imperius voted against Sanctuary's existence and Auriel argued strongly for it. The deciding vote was laid by Tyrael, who initially seemed to show little love for humanity, something which has evidently developed over the years since this event. Together with Mephisto, a deal was made between Heaven and Hell. Sanctuary was to live on its own, with no war brought there by Heaven or Hell. Humanity would choose for themselves what to do. In return for agreeing to this, Mephisto obtained custody of Inarius and took him to the Burning Hells. Mephisto sought Inarius because it was him and his daughter Lilith that was responsible for the creation of Sanctuary and the Nephalem.

This was followed by a reset of the world. Time was reverted right to the point where Uldyssian left his home village, and events were unmade so that the inhabitants of Sanctuary could mature on their own, without the influence of the Triune, or the Cathedral with these guidelines:

All memories were wiped save that of the original Nephalem (the reasoning was that the original Nephalem were very few and they would pass-on soon enough anyway) and Mendeln (Trag'Oul saved him his memory so he could remember the sacrifice his brother made, as well as teach any willing students the ways of the balance).

Serenthia was revived and Achilios is turned back into a living human because of Uldyssian sacrificing himself (this is a direct effect of Uldyssian's sacrifice, has nothing to do with the Angiris Council or Mephisto)

The Cathedral and Triune were no more.

Azmodan, Belial, Andariel, and Duriel are the four Lesser Evils of Hell. Whether Diablo and his brothers intended for it or not, the Four Lesser Evils plotted and ultimately exiled the Three Primes into Sanctuary. In their absence, Belial, the lord of Lies, and Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, engaged in a civil war between themselves. Their war rages in the deepest pits of Hell to for eons.

Tyrael learns of the Three's exile into Sanctuary and mobilizes to stop them. He creates the Horadrim, a collection of the most powerful human Magi, including Jered Cain, Deckard Cain's ancestor, and Tal Rasha. Tyrael charges the Horadrim with the capture of the Three Prime Evils, giving them Soulstones to imprison the souls of Diablo and his brothers within. One by one they find and imprison the Primes. Unable to permanently destroy the demons, the Horadrim are forced to instead hide the Soulstones.

Baal's Soulstone was imprisoned inside a huge tomb constructed with a single purpose: keep him in and others out. Baal had damaged his soulstone during his capture due to his destructive nature. Tal Rasha, knowing that the final shard of Baal's broken Soulstone was not great enough to contain the Prime Evil, chose to use his own body as a prison for the Prime. Lodging it into his chest and binding himself to a pillar, Tal Rasha remained in the tomb for centuries, containing the Evil within.

Mephisto's Soulstone was sealed inside a temple in Kurast, although he had originally been captured in Aranoch along with Baal. Afraid to imprison two Primes so close to each other, the Horadrim chose to move him. The Zakarum monks were tasked with its protection (ultimately, however, the Soulstone corrupted the monks and Mephisto took a host among them).

Diablo had fled to the west and continued to evade capture for several decades after his brothers' capture. Eventually he was captured near today's Westmarch, and the Horadrim built a cathedral above his tomb to stand guard. As time passed by however, the Horadrim fell apart, and no one else remembered the evil imprisoned within.

A conquering hero known as Leoric established himself as the king of Khanduras, a kingdom on the Western continent of Sanctuary. He appointed Tristram as the capital of this kingdom and used the abandoned cathedral there as his throne and central point of governance. Not soon after, King Leoric's most trusted advisor Archbishop Lazarus was drawn deeper into the cathedral by the Lord of Terror's Soulstone. The Archbishop, whether out of fear or temptation, shattered the Soulstone, releasing Diablo's trapped spirit. Unable to take King Leoric himself as a physical host, Diablo had the Archbishop Lazarus kidnap the king's son, Prince Albrecht, and brought him down into the Cathedral for Diablo to corrupt and use as his host to fully manifest as the Lord of Terror.

The King, already deranged from Diablo's attempts to possess him, went mad in his search for his lost son, sending many to their death out of suspicion of guilt. Ultimately Lazarus led the town's warriors into the cathedral as a trap for The Butcher, a minion wielding a bloody cleaver. King Leoric's physical form had withered away, but his soul found no peace and returned as a giant skeleton, still wearing his golden crown.

Several heroes travelled to Tristram, hearing rumors of a corrupting evil, vast riches, and arcane magic. The heroes were assisted in their journeys by Deckard Cain, a descendant of one of The Horadrim. Canonically, it was Aidan, (the playable Warrior character within the first game) the son of Leoric, who sought and ultimately vanquished Diablo. Thinking he was able to contend with its evil, Aidan forced Diablo's Soulstone into his own forehead. After returning to Tristram, the town's inhabitants celebrated their champion's victory, but Aidan had returned a much changed man, haunted by Diablo's essence.

Aidan departed Tristram and travelled to the East for answers to his nightmares…

The vanquisher of Diablo finds himself taking refuge in a tavern from the blizzard. Perhaps stirred by the other drunk men, or perhaps simply unable to contain the Lord of Terror within himself any longer, the tormented champion suddenly erupts into chaos. Demons and skeletons spawn and slay all within the tavern, but one: Marius, a human bystander whom the Wanderer urges to follow him for unknown reasons.

The champion becomes The Dark Wanderer, and begins to journey onwards towards the Rogue Monastery. Once there, he drives the Sisters of the Sightless Eye out of their monastery, and tasks Andariel with the guarding of the pass from anyone who might follow. This disturbs Deckard Cain, who is deeply concerned that Andariel, once one of the demons that overthew Diablo, now appears to be helping the prime evil.

As did heroes arrive in Tristram to find adventure, glory, or riches, more arrive in the Rogue Encampment for similar reasons. A band of adventurers form and seek the Monastery and the evils that lie within. From an overrun Tristram, they rescue Deckard Cain, who guides them on their way to the Monastery, where they defeat Andariel and find clear passage to Lut Gholein.

With Marius, The Wanderer travels East to Lut Gholein to search for the Tomb of Tal Rasha and finds Tal Rasha still imprisoned in the final chamber. Tyrael, however, having discovered The Wanderer's escape from Tristram, is there waiting for him. Tyrael and a now empowered Wanderer lock into combat. Baal, still trapped in Tal Rasha's body, notices that Marius is also present, and though the Prime Evil has deformed his host greatly in the years of imprisonment, he is powerful enough to trick Marius into seeing him as nothing but a chained human. He lures Marius into pulling the soulstone from Tal Rasha's chest, destroying Baal's prison. Baal and his brother Diablo overwhelm Tyrael and trap him in the tomb, summoning Duriel to prevent the Archangel from following. Tyrael, with no chance of pursuing, tasks Marius with taking Baal's Soulstone and traveling to the Eastern kingdom of Kurast. There, the Archangel commands, Marius must enter the portal into Hell and destroy the Soulstone at the Hellforge.

The band of heroes who had slain Andariel at the Monastery now seek the Tomb of Tal Rasha, where Baal, the Lord of Destruction, is said to be kept imprisoned. With the help of Cain, the Horadric Cube, and Lut Gholein's inhabitants, the adventurers ultimately find their way to the Arcane Sanctuary. There in that twisted reality they find The Summoner, the entrance to the Canyon of the Magi and finally Tal Rasha's Tomb. Having found the true tomb, the party defeats Duriel and frees Tyrael.

Now forced to pursue The Dark Wanderer and Baal, the heroes sail East to Kurast, city of the Zakarum.

The Dark Wanderer, whose growing corruption by Diablo's spirit continues to pervert his form, and Baal proceed to free their eldest brother Mephisto in Kurast. The last imprisoned Prime Evil was once given to the care of the Zakarum church, but was able to corrupt the entire faith from within his soulstone, and all but their highest leader, Khalim, the Que-Haegan, fell to his influence. The High Council, which had previously led the order of the Paladins, became the arm of Mephisto in Sanctuary. Thus the two evils have little trouble reaching their brother once they reach Kurast. Once again united, The Dark Wanderer takes a new form as the Lord of Terror, Diablo, and the Three open up a portal to Hell. Diablo is tasked with reclaiming Hell for their use, presumably from the warring Azmodan and Belial. Diablo steps through to the portal and into Hell.

Oblivious to the Three, Marius has witnessed their meeting and his companion's transformation. Although charged by Tyrael to venture into Hell, he does not find the courage to do as the Archangel instructed. Instead, he retreats and finds bastion in a mental asylum.

Baal likely follows Diablo shortly afterwards, for when the player reaches the lowest level of Mephisto's Durance, Baal is not there. The Three must be aware of the heroes pursuing them by now, for Mephisto has stayed behind to stop them. He is, however, defeated by the venturing band of heroes. His Soulstone remains intact, and it is taken through the portal to Hell.

In Hell, the heroes find themselves operating out of the Pandemonium Fortress, which is the foremost bastion of Heaven in their war against Hell. From here, the heroes are instructed to carry out three important missions:

Seek Izual, the fallen angel, and slay him for his betrayal.

Seek the Hellforge and shatter Mephisto's Soulstone.

Seek Diablo in his sanctuary and vanquish him from the mortal realm.

Izual at one point was one of Tyrael's most celebrated lieutenants. Until, going against the wishes of the Angirus Council, he led an ill-fated assault upon the Hellforge. Attempting to stop the creation of Shadowfang, an evil weapon being created to combat the Azurewrath, the blade carried by Izual himself. During the assault, he was captured and tortured for information. He gave in and spilled secrets of The Heavens to the armies of Hell. Upon his return from the pits of Hell, the Angirus Council, angered by his disobedience and enraged by his betrayal, punished him by locking his form within a demon from the abyss and banished him to The Void. Tyrael gives this quest, and asks that Izual be put out of his misery. Originally he then appears to be a miserable character, but upon his death, Izual tells the band of adventurers that he told the Prime Evils how to corrupt the soulstones and so helped them "mastermind their own exile" into Sanctuary. In truth then, Izual appears to have played a crucial part in the plot, and without him it is unlikely the Dark Exile would ever have taken place.

After having slain Izual and shattered Mephisto's Soulstone, the heroes move towards Diablo. The Lord of Terror fortifies himself in the Chaos Sanctuary. Its architecture is towering and gothic, but its purpose is unknown. The band of heroes defeat Diablo and his soulstone is smashed at the Hellforge.

Diablo now defeated, Baal seeks out Marius and finds him in the asylum. Disguised as Tyrael, Baal requests Marius cede the Soulstone to him. He does, only to realize his grievous mistake moments later. Baal kills Marius and burns down the asylum. The failure of Marius does not bode well for Sanctuary.

Baal, the last living Prime Evil, returns. Fortunately for Baal, he was imprisoned in Tal Rasha, and the great Horadrim mage was one of the few who knew the exact location of the Worldstone, the barrier hiding Sanctuary from other worlds. With the location revealed to him as Mt. Arreat, he launches an all-out assault upon it.

His assault on Mt. Arreat and the Barbarians living there is a success. The human forces are overwhelmed by Hell, and in the end only one city, Harrogath, still stands. All but one of the town's elders - Nihlathak - sacrificed themselves to raise a ward to block out all demons. Regardless, Baal is not impeded by this last town, and moves on toward Mt. Arreat. It is to this town that the heroes arrive, and from there they fight their way forward in Baal's tracks.

Atop Mt. Arreat lies the last protection of the Worldstone: three barbarian heroes; Korlic, Madawc and Talic, who were once selected by some Nephalem (most likely Bul-Kathos with some others) to stand guard over Mt. Arreat and protect it from any who tried to enter without carrying the Relic of the Ancients. This relic was in the possession of the elders of Harrogath, and since they all died, it was left to Nihlathak. Knowing this, Baal traded Nihlathak this relic for an assurance of Harrogath's safety. Once in possession of the relic, he was able to freely pass the Ancients.

The heroes, not having the relic themselves, were therefore required to face the Ancients as they followed Baal. Even though the Ancients should likely aid humanity, and even speak against Baal and his actions, still they fought with the heroes, but were defeated and allowed the humans to pass into the Worldstone Keep. Within, Baal is found and killed, but not before he reaches the Worldstone and taints it. Tyrael appears next to the Worldstone and grants the heroes safe passage back to Harrogath, but must himself contend with the predicament of the corrupted Worldstone. Without any other option to save humanity, he hurls his flaming sword into the Worldstone and shatters it into an infinite number of pieces, its destruction appearing as if Tyrael had thrown a boulder into a lake of water but the splashes and ripples were manifested as shards of crystal.

Twenty years after those events , Deckard Cain and Leah are in Tristram Cathedral (the same cathedral that was the setting of Diablo the first game) investigating ancient texts regarding an ominous prophecy. A mysterious star falling from the sky strikes the Cathedral, creating a deep crater into which Deckard Cain disappears and is presumed dead.

A hero arrives in the town of New Tristram to investigate the falling star which struck the cathedral, which is now emanating risen undead. The hero accompanies Leah to the cathedral in order to rescue Cain from the crater into which he fell. After rescuing Cain, the hero learns that the only way to the fallen star is to defeat King Leoric, the former ruler of Khanduras known now as the 'Skeleton King'. Cain informs the hero that Leoric's crown must be recovered to defeat him, and the hero searches for Leoric's crown with the aid of Haedrig Eamon, the blacksmith of New Tristram. After recovering the crown, the hero returns to the cathedral where he/she eventually encounters and rescues Kormac, a warrior of the Templar order who has been taken captive by members of a cult known as the Dark Coven. Together, they defeat Leoric and find a stranger where the fallen star landed. The stranger's only memory is of a sword that shattered into three pieces as he fell.

The hero recovers the sword pieces from the Khazra Den and the Drowned Temple, opposed by the witch Maghda, leader of the Dark Coven - giving aid to a bandit named Lyndon in retrieving a false relic in the process. Maghda, however, recovers the third piece before the protagonist does and attempts to force Cain to repair the sword. Leah, however, kills the cultists with a surge of magical power, forcing Maghda to kill Cain and flee with the stranger. Cain, before dying, repairs the sword and tasks the hero with returning it to the stranger, revealing that both the sword and the stranger are angelic. The hero pursues Maghda into the bowels of King Leoric's dilapidated torture chambers underneath his manor, rescuing the stranger and returning to him his sword after a violent fight with the Butcher, a powerful demon. The stranger's memories are recovered, and it is revealed that he is the Archangel Tyrael, the Aspect of Justice. Disgusted with his fellow angels' unwillingness to protect humanity from the forces of Hell, Tyrael casts aside his divinity to become a mortal and warn Sanctuary about the arrival of the demon lords Belial (Lord of Lies) and Azmodan (Lord of Sin).

The hero, Leah, and Tyrael then travel to the city of Caldeum. The hero leaves to track down Maghda at Alcarnus as per orders from Asheara, commander of the Iron Wolves, while Leah and Tyrael search for evidence of Belial in the city sewers. The hero first encounters a young Enchantress who introduces herself as Eirena, who hails from a different era. With Eirena's help, the hero finds and stops cultists from channeling an illusion by halting their progress. Continuing on, the hero reaches the Khasim Outpost, finding that Belial's serpent demons have imprisoned and replaced the true guards. Freeing Captain Davyd and his men, the hero reclaims the Khasim Outpost from the serpent demons and is given access to Alcarnus. After freeing the prisoners, the hero fights Maghda in her lair and kills her, avenging Cain, then returns to Caldeum to rescue Leah from the grasp of the Imperial Guards. Gaining an audience with the young Emperor of Caldeum, Hakan II, the hero is blamed for the chaos at Alcarnus, and the Emperor orders the hero's death and that Leah be brought to him, forcing the hero to escape the palace. Escaping to the sewers, Leah reveals that her mother, Adria, is still alive. The hero aids Leah in rescuing Adria from the city's sewers.

Adria reveals that the key to stopping the forces of Hell is the Black Soulstone. Crafted by the deranged warlock Zoltun Kulle, it has the power to trap the souls of the seven Lords of Hell and destroy them forever. Leah explains that Kulle was slain by the Horadrim before he could put the finishing touches on the stone, and that his severed head was sealed off in the lush Dahlgur Oasis. Adria instructs the hero to find the warlock's head in the oasis if the Soulstone is to be retrieved. After the head is retrieved, Leah revives the ghost of Zoltun Kulle, and Tyrael instructs him to activate the Black Soulstone. Kulle states that two vials of his blood hidden by the Horadrim in the Desolate Sands are needed to reach the stone. Leah decides to accompany the hero whilst putting the warlock's head in the protagonist's packs. After recovering the two vials of blood, the hero ventures into Kulle's archives in search of his body, while Leah prepares the ritual to bring Kulle back. After Kulle is brought back to life, the hero is then led into the archive's inner sanctum where the Black Soulstone is located, but is forced to defeat Kulle when the resurrected warlock attempts to take the soulstone for himself. Upon returning to Caldeum, the hero finds the city under attack by Belial's forces. Leah and Adria fight their way to the palace with the hero, revealing Belial as having taken the form of the Emperor to deceive them, and eventually defeat him. Leah then traps Belial's soul within the Black Soulstone, freeing Caldeum, after which she has a vision of the demon lord Azmodan, who is invading Sanctuary from the crater of Mount Arreat (destroyed by Tyrael earlier in history) in order to retrieve the Black Soulstone and empower himself, becoming the Prime Evil.

The hero travels to Bastion's Keep with Tyrael, their followers, Leah and Adria only to find it under attack by Azmodan's army. Tyrael instructs the hero to aid the defenders, lighting the signal fires on the keep's walls, and raising the catapults. With that done, the hero enters the stronghold, where Azmodan's forces have breached the lower levels, defeating the demon Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony. The hero then takes to the battlefield, destroying Azmodan's siege weapons and traveling to the crater of Mount Arreat. Tyrael assists the hero in reaching the demonic gate protecting the crater, and destroys it with his sword, El'druin. After a gruesome battle with a huge Siegebreaker Assault Beast, the hero traverses the depths of Arreat's inner core, destroying the Sin Hearts, which empower Azmodan and his armies. Azmodan's consort Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust, attempts to protect the hearts, but is defeated by the hero, who then confronts and defeats Azmodan. Leah seals Azmodan's soul within the Black Soulstone. With all seven Lords of Hell trapped within the stone, Tyrael states that the Eternal Conflict between Heaven and Hell will be ended if the stone is destroyed. The hero returns to Bastion's Keep, but finds that Adria has betrayed them. Adria reveals she has been serving Diablo from the beginning, and that Leah's father is Leoric's son Aidan, the Dark Wanderer, who was possessed by Diablo. Adria uses the Black Soulstone to resurrect Diablo while forcing Leah to serve as his vessel. With all the souls of the Lords of Hell now within him, Diablo becomes the Prime Evil, and begins an assault on the High Heavens.

The hero arrives in the High Heavens to find that it is already under attack. Imperius, the Aspect of Valor, blames the hero and Tyrael for their downfall, causing Tyrael to give in to despair. On the other hand, the hero remains determined to fight, and defeats the demon Iskatu. The hero then meets Itherael, the Aspect of Fate, who instructs him to rescue Auriel, the Aspect of Hope, from Rakanoth, the Lord of Despair, in the Library of Fate. After rescuing Auriel and returning hope to the forces of Heaven, the hero is then instructed by Auriel to close the Hell Rifts. After this is done, the hero finds Tyrael, who has overcome his despair. Together, they attempt to stop Diablo from reaching the Crystal Arch, the source of power for the forces of Heaven, but not before a brawl with Izual, Tyrael's corrupted former lieutenant. After a long and fierce battle, Diablo is defeated and his physical manifestation is destroyed. The Black Soulstone is shown falling from the High Heavens, still intact. After the battle, Tyrael decides to rejoin the Angiris Council as the new Aspect of Wisdom, but remains a mortal, dedicated to building a permanent alliance between angels and humans.

After Diablo is defeated by the Nephalem (the hero who defeated him not too long ago), Tyrael recovers the Black Soulstone that contains the essence of all seven of the Great Evils. Knowing it is too dangerous to leave in the hands of mortals or angels, he and six Horadrim members take the Black Soulstone back to Sanctuary and attempt to seal it away where it can never be found - deep in the tomb of Rakkis, the first King of Westmarch, the kingdom established to the west of Khanduras. However, the group is ambushed by Malthael, former Archangel of Wisdom and member of the Angiris Council, who had disappeared after the destruction of the Worldstone after it was corrupted by Baal twenty years earlier. Now calling himself the "Angel of Death", Malthael kills all but one of the Horadrim, incapacitates Tyrael in the process, and steals the Black Soulstone.

Tyrael sends the surviving Horadrim, Lorath Nahr, to locate the Nephalem. Nahr encounters the Nephalem outside Westmarch City, which has been overrun by the Reapers, Malthael's army of enslaved spirits and renegade angels. With the gates blocked, the Nephalem fights through the city sewers to the Zakarum cathedral in the city center, where they encounter Tyrael. Tyrael reveals that with Diablo gone, Malthael sees humanity as a race of demons based on their descent from the original Nephalem, the offspring of angels and demons; by wiping out humanity, Malthael hopes to end the Eternal Conflict, the long war between Heaven and Hell. A sliver broke off from the Black Soulstone when Malthael took it, and Tyrael attempts to use it to discover Malthael's plans. The Reapers deploy two soul crucibles into Westmarch City to claim the souls of the dead, and the Nephalem locates and destroys them, earning the ire of Urzael, Malthael's chief lieutenant, who awaits the hero in Westmarch Heights. The Nephalem tracks Urzael down to the Tower of Korelan and defeats him in a gruesome battle.

The Nephalem learns from Myriam Jahzia, a mystic rescued during the attack against the soul crucibles, that Adria is in Westmarch seeking to locate the Black Soulstone and resurrect her master again. Lorath decides to accompany the hero, than learns that Adria sealed the tomb's entrance with a rock slide, so he suggests unlocking the guide-stones to open the correct passageway. Travelling into the ancient ruins in the Blood Marsh outside Westmarch, the Nephalem confronts Adria, who manages to locate Malthael at the Pandemonium Fortress, built in the realm between Heaven and Hell to watch over the Worldstone. She then transforms into a winged demonic creature, claiming that Diablo sent her a vision of his return at the hands of the Nephalem, after which the Nephalem slays her. Upon learning of Malthael's location, Tyrael takes the Nephalem back into the High Heavens, where they find the Pandemonium Gate under attack by Malthael's Reapers. Upon defeating the attackers, they are met by Imperius, Aspect of Valor and the commander of Heaven's armies, who reluctantly admits that Malthael must be stopped and leads the Nephalem into the Realm of Pandemonium. Imperius directs the Nephalem to use an ancient battering ram to breach the fortress gates, using siege runes held by the demons trapped there.

Tyrael arrives just as the Nephalem prepares to activate the ram, revealing that he has discovered Malthael's plan; he intends to use the Black Soulstone to consume all demonic essence in Sanctuary, including that which makes up the bloodline of humanity, leading to its extinction. After breaching the gates with four hits with the battering ram, Tyrael informs the Nephalem that they must become "one with death", as Malthael is, in order to defeat him. Inside the fortress, the Nephalem encounters a figure from their past who directs them to unlock the soul prison kept in its depths. The Nephalem channels the spirits from the prison and takes on an aspect of death themselves, before moving on to defeat the guardians that bar the way to Malthael's sanctum at the heart of the fortress.

 **(This is where it diverts from canon)**

The Nephalem holds their own against Malthael for a time, until he shatters the Black Soulstone and takes the power of the Seven Evils within himself. And yet, even with the newly acquired power, they failed to defeat Malthael in time, and were forced to watch as all of humanity was wiped off the face of the earth itself with the Nephalem being the last one to perish from the Soulstone's purge of everything demonic…

Malthael stood over the body of the Nephalem in triumph since his plan had worked and he had brought the Eternal Conflict to an end after so long. And once he was done, he went to return to his brothers to share with them the news that they no longer had to fight an eternal senseless war. Yet he wasn't welcome in the High heavens as he had expected he would be, in fact he was cast out and banished for all eternity, his power sealed within him as a constant reminder of the fact that he had committed genocide as well as betrayed everything that the Angels stood for, even if his actions had brought peace he had done it in a way that not a single one of them would have done. So he set out into the empty world of Sanctuary itself and found a cave to seal himself off from the rest of the world, since he was no longer welcome in the High Heavens and there wasn't another soul in all of Sanctuary to talk to do to his actions.

For thousands of years after what became known as the Purge happened, the Angels grew stagnant in their ways since without the forces of Hell to fight against, what purpose did they have? They didn't even have a way to undo what had been done, so in the end they all decided as a group to forsake their Angelic nature and become the new humans of the world, and so they did. Each took on a human form and a new name to start their new life in Sanctuary, yet one of them took with them an item of power that would remain in her family for many years to come, sealed away from the world until it came into possession of one of her descendants who was named Kagura. At this time, humanity had expanded to all corners of the world, and problems had ensued because for opposing views from various people. The true history of the world had become forgotten after so many years and there was little order within the world since no one had the power to take charge and lead the people. So Kagura used the item left by her ancestor to bestow the power of nature and life which became known as chakra to herself in an attempt to bring some form of peace to the people, which worked for a time. But soon she had two children of her own who as they grew older, they gifted the power to others as well, which in turn led to internal struggles with those who had the power. Kagura used her power to create a creature to wipe out those who threatened the peace she had worked so hard to achieve, yet her own children turned on her, one of which sealed the creature who was known as the Juubi into himself to grant himself an enormous power boost, which he used to seal his mother away in the moon itself, knowing that no one would ever be able to get to her and set her free. The power that he took began to twist his mind and consume him to the point that his views became twisted. He claimed himself as the Sage of the Six Paths and began a one sided massacre of those who refused to bow to his will. Around 90 percent of the world resisted and was slaughtered by the man, who then took the survivors and placed them within what would become known as the Elemental Countries, where he used his vast power to wipe out the memories of the people to make them believe that he was a saint when in reality he was nothing short of a monster.

Out of all those brought to the Elemental Countries, one man alone retained the memories of the past by means he was uncertain of how he was able to do so. He knew that the Sage had to be stopped to avoid another massacre like what had happened before and sought out the power to do so. He left the Elemental Courtiers to do so and traveled for years in search of the power he sought. Eventually he came upon the cave that Malthael had exiled himself to for many years and asked him to help him defeat the Sage, but Malthael refused to do so with the explanation that never again would he lift his hands to fight another person for he had shed enough blood in his long life to last forever. So the man asked him for the power to do it himself, to which Malthael agreed t, but warned him that in death he would be changed in a way that he would not foresee since he was being gifted the power of Death itself. The man accepted the power without fear, for he would do anything to save those who were precious to him.

He took the time to master the power given to him, and when he thought himself ready, he returned to face the Sage himself. The battle was long and destructive, and yet in the end the Sage won and slew the man who had challenged him, yet in death his power grew exponentially. He became a spirit of death that in time would become known as the Shinigami and with his increased strength he slew the Sage by ripping out the demon he sealed into himself, but the strain of such a thing split it into nine separate creatures that became known as the Biju, and they scattered with a new lease on life as well as fragmented memories that over time they pieced together in a way that they saw the Sage of the Six Paths as their father and a courageous man, and the Shinigami didn't have the heart to tell them or even the rest of Humanity the truth on the matter since the world was at peace for the moment because of his actions and he didn't want to cause chaos with the truth. So he accepted the role as the peacekeeper of the world and set out to form some sort of balance in the world. By the actions of killing the Sage, he somehow ascended to the long forgotten High Heavens, where he gained even more power than before, and claimed the title of Kami. He planned on once more heading into the world of man to enslave them with his power, but by the time he had gained his power, the Shinigami had used his to form a barrier to seal him off from the mortal realm so that he was stuck in the High Heavens. Kami cursed the Shinigami and swore to make the world suffer for his actions.

The Shinigami also knew that while the High Heavens was a place for those souls who were filled with light, there had to be a place for those whose souls were dark with evil. And so he found the gates of Hell and like he did for the High Heavens, he made a barrier to seal it off from the mortal realm. Yet he still needed to find a person to run it since it was now his duty to judge as well as ferry the souls of the world to their permeant destination within the afterlife. In his search for a soul to run Hell he came upon the entity known as Diablo himself, who had hidden away from the world much like Malthael himself yet instead of doing so in a way of repentance, he did so to gather up his strength once more and once acquired he would raise his demonic armies once more and destroy the High Heavens. Yet what he had been unaware of at the time was that when the Soulstone was destroyed, so where the other Evils within it since while Diablo had survived himself, he had used all of their demonic energy to just barely survive its destruction. There were no more Evils to absorb into the world, just as there were no more demons as well due to Malthael himself. So Diablo was stuck being in his weakened state and would never regain the power he once had in the past. He had tried to taint and corrupt the Biju with Demonic energy in an attempt to make more Evils for him to absorb, but it didn't work and in fact only made them far stronger. So the Shinigami offered him a chance to rule Hell once more since he would never be able to accomplish his goals, which he reluctantly accepted since the Shinigami was right. And as he took the throne once more, he decided to forsake his own name since Diablo was a name of a Prime Evil, and he would never again regain that sort of power so he was unworthy of such a fearsome name, so he settled for Lucifer or Satan if you wish…

With the afterlife in balance, the Shinigami saw the world balance itself out with the distribution of chakra to the people, with some not being able to use it as other could. And those who could start clans and wandered the Countries in search of permanent homes. It would be about a hundred years before the countries would be divided into what they were today and then another few hundred years until the Shinobi villages came to fruition. Yet once they were it became the beginning of a new Endless Conflict, this time though it wasn't between angel and demon, but between mankind and itself. The Shinigami watched this world begin to tear itself apart since within a hundred year period they had three great Shinobi Wars already, and it seemed like there would be another one in the future if the events of the past were anything to go by. Yet the Shinigami knew that he could do nothing more than to guide the poor as well as the corrupt souls that died from the battles as well as the conflicts that man had created for themselves, for when he was gifted the power by Malthael, he saw what he had done to try to force peace in the world and knew that he couldn't mess with the affairs of humanity less he do the same. So all hope of any form of peace into the future was lost, or at least it was until the day that the Shinigami himself was summoned by a man who made the ultimate sacrifice to seal one of the Biju within his son to stop it from destroying the village…

(7 years after the Kyuubi attack)

Running through the forest was blonde-haired Naruto who had just turned seven today. People who didn't know of Naruto's life outside of the village would ask why was a seven year old child was running in the forest such as this on his birthday when he should be celebrating it with friends and family. The answer is that it wasn't just the birthday of Naruto, it was the day the Kyuubi was defeated seven years ago and the day that the civilians of the village all got together to do the yearly Fox Hunt. This fox hunt detailed a mob of civilians that would chase him when Naruto was found in the village. Today was no different as he had left his apartment to find something to do on his birthday. So he left early to eat at the Ichiraku's who were two of the few people who didn't ignore or attack him unlike anyone else in the village. The blonde found it nice that he had people who he could trust and care for unlike the others in the village. Unfortunately he never got to the ramen stand since he was found by the mob of civilians who chased him out to the forest on the outskirts of the village. They had thrown sharp object at him and judging by the fact that he was bleeding from both his arms and one of his legs, they had found their marks.

"Stupid citizens! Stupid villagers! Stupid village! I haven't done anything and all they do is treat me like dirt, why do they do this," shouted Naruto in his mind while not noticing the hole in front of him. When Naruto came back to the real world it was too late as he already had his foot in the hole and fell forward into it.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh" screamed Naruto falling down into the pitch black darkness. As he fell he could hear the faint laughing and cheering of the mob who were saying that they finally finished the Fourth's work. Naruto would have been angry if he wasn't scared for his life right now. Luckily for him there was a small pile of rubble and dirt at the bottom of the hole that softened the blow for Naruto but that didn't mean it still didn't hurt.

After waiting for ten minutes to recover and gain his breath, Naruto stood up and looked around to see where he was. Strangely it wasn't as dark as he expected it to be and saw a strange light that was in a room in front of himself. Walking forward Naruto found an amazing discovery making his eyes blink in wonder. For in front of him was a door that was jet black yet glowed with energy that he had never seen the likes of before. He reached out to push the doors open, and as he did they opened of their own accord from him touching them. Without anywhere else to go, he walked into the room, where the doors slammed shut behind him. Naruto continued forward since his curiosity was getting the best of him and he just had to see this through. He saw that he was in a dimly lit room with the only source of light was coming from a torch on the other side of the room that strangely enough was glowing from a blue flame. Naruto marveled at that since he had never seen blue flames before, plus the fact he was a kid only helped his sense of wonder.

"So it would appear that you are the one I felt with both Angelic as well as Demonic energy within you," said a voice behind Naruto that caused him to jump in fright. What he saw was the room light up with more blue torches that made it so he could see who was talking, and what he saw scared him since standing there was a tall intimidating figure wearing what appeared to be an armored version of a cloak with the hood up so his face was not visible, and to top off the creepy factor was a pair of what appeared to be wings that appeared to be made up of either some type of energy that he was unaware of or some type of smoke, he wasn't quite sure. Before Naruto could pass out from fear, the man dropped his sickle like weapons he had in hand to show that he meant no harm to the boy. He told him that in fact that he had a proposition for him that would prove far more beneficial to him than anyone else in the world could give him. He told the boy that his name was Malthael and that he wants to pass on his powers to him so that he could become mortal and pass on since he was tired of living. Naruto was scared to answer at first, but Malthael showed him what his powers were capable of when mastered. He told the boy the true history of the world from the beginning to end all the way up to the present day, which made Naruto's head hurt since it was a lot to take in. But he declined the offer since he wanted to get power his own way without taking shortcuts of any sort in life.

It was then that Malthael told him that while his reasoning were of sound mind, that he would never become stronger under the watch of those who ruled over him. Naruto called him a liar since he knew that the Hokage would allow him to grow strong so as to protect the village. Malthael rebutted by telling him that while he would be defending the village, since that part was in fact correct, the Hokage would never allow him to grow strong because he wanted Naruto controlled. And to prove his point he opened a portal that showed past events that he had watched over the years and showed him all the meetings he had with various ANBU that were supposed to be watching him, the plans they made to humble him by letting people hurt him and then swooping in to save them at the last second. He saw the Hokage talk with a man with spikey white hair about some prophecy that involved him as well as the identity of his parents and the plans to take everything that legally belonged to Naruto by rights of inheritance once a seal could be made to open the doors to the mansion that was also Naruto's by law.

Naruto had fell to his knees in tears since he didn't know what to do with his life now since it had been nothing more than one great big lie. So Malthael once more offered him his power so that he could use it to acquire his revenge. But he warned him that once his mortal body died, that he would forever be bound to the realm of man in spirit since it would be his duty as the Angel of Death to keep the balance of the world in place. This time Naruto accepted his offer without hesitation, and so he was granted the full extent of his power, which was painful for him to take in since it enhanced his body in just about every possible way. His body, once skinny and malnourished was healthy and strong. His mind was now far more intelligent than anyone else's in the world and a plan formed in his head on how to play this out. He saw the mortal body of Malthael smile once as he fell forward dead, his old age rapidly decaying his body and spreading his dust to the wind that blew through the room as it did. Naruto knew then that he needed to get out of the village to train in his full powers, and right now as the way he was was a dead giveaway that something had made him powerful, and with his far superior mind he knew that the higher ups wouldn't like that and attempt to seal away his power in some way. He looked at himself and saw that he was now slightly taller than he was before and had the body of a young bodybuilder. His clothes matched what his father wore during his time as Hokage except that his were jet black with a dark grey shirt and the kanji for 'Death' on the back, with a hood that covered his face in shadow to conceal his identity and black pants and thick black combat boots. Naruto walked over and picked up his newest weapons that he would learn to wield in time and thought on what to do. Then an idea came to him…

He used his abilities to make a perfect clone of his former self, down to the mindset as well. The village wanted a gullible boy that they could manipulate into becoming their weapon for the future, so that was what he was going to give them for the time being so that he could go out into the world and master his powers. It was then that he knew that there was just one last piece of the puzzle that he needed to put in to make the illusion complete…

While Naruto had been talking to Malthael, the Kyuubi within him had been cowering in fear in his cage since he knew who this man was since he saw the same memories that had been shown to Naruto. He knew that Naruto could easily kill him if he so wished to do so with his new power and he would beg to be spared if and when Naruto came to talk to him. And just as he thought that, Naruto entered his mindscape to do just that. The Kyuubi bowed submissively as he saw Naruto standing there, and Naruto walked up to him, breaking the bars of his cage like they were nothing and grabbed him by the nose and pulled his face so he looked him square in the eyes. Naruto told him that he ought to kill him for all the pain that he had been forced to suffer because he was sealed inside of him, and as he said that Kyuubi began to sweat heavily in fear. Yet Naruto calmed his nerves by offering a chance at redemption by being resealed within his clone to make those in charge of the village think he was the real Naruto. Kyuubi agreed to do so immediately and was told that once his part of the plan was done that he would be sent to the bowels of Hell itself were he could torment human souls for the rest of eternity. The Kyuubi told him that he was too kind and prepared himself to be resealed, which he was successfully. As Naruto stepped out of the cage to escape his mindscape, he was met with the spirits of his parents who had put a fragment of them into the seal so as to help reseal the Kyuubi if he ever attempted to break free somehow. Naruto told them of his life, and they were sad to hear what his life had been like up to this point. As he hugged them goodbye, he heard them ask what he planned to do now. Naruto stopped, and without looking back he said just one thing before he left his mindscape…

Make things right…

(6 years later – Wave Country)

While Genin were normally assigned D-rank missions for quite some time after graduation, Naruto insisted on doing something more exciting, and the Third Hokage agreed to send them on a C-rank mission to escort Tazuna, a master bridge-builder, back to the Land of Waves. During their mission, the team was attacked by two Chunin, enemies at a level that wasn't supposed to be encountered on a C-rank mission. Naruto, surprised by the Chunin' appearances, panicked and was struck by one of the chūnin's poisonous metal gauntlets. Sasuke, in Naruto's absence, dealt with the attackers quite efficiently, and rubbed it in by one-upping of Naruto by calling him a "scaredy-cat". Once the attackers had been restrained, Naruto bled out the poison he had received by stabbing his wound with a kunai, swearing upon the pain in his hand never to freeze up and leave his friends to fend for themselves ever again.

Kakashi, his suspicions raised by the attack, asked Tazuna for the truth about the circumstances of the mission. Tazuna explained that the Land of Waves had been taken over by a shipping magnate called Gatō, who had effectively bankrupted all the people of the country, and that the only way to revitalize the economy was by building a bridge to the mainland that could render moot Gatō's shipping monopoly. However, Gatō did not want that to happen, and used shinobi gangs to assert his control. Team 7's actual mission was to support and protect the bridge-building efforts that had been thwarted thus far.

Upon arrival at the Land of Waves and on the way to Tazuna's home, Naruto, bent on outdoing Sasuke, threw a kunai at a bush, surprising the other ninja and putting them on guard. Once it was clear that it was nothing, Sakura yelled at him for his apparent mistake, but Naruto threw another kunai at a bush in the other direction. Sakura hit him on the head this time, though Naruto swore he had sensed something. As it turned out, he had sensed a snow rabbit, which was now scared out of its mind due to the kunai only an inch from its head. Naruto apologized to and sympathized profusely with the rabbit, picking it up and hugging it to an extreme. While the others dismissed his antics as Naruto's usual idiocy, Kakashi noticed something strange about the rabbit: its fur was white. Snow rabbits are only white during winter, meaning that this rabbit had been raised indoors and therefore belonged to someone nearby.

Kakashi suddenly told everyone to duck as a giant sword spun past them, nearly killing them all. The sword embedded itself in a tree, and Zabuza Momochi, a missing-nin from Kirigakure, jumped onto its handle, intent on killing Tazuna. Kakashi, recognizing Zabuza as a formidable opponent, revealed his Sharingan, saying that he will need to use it. Zabuza, honored by Kakashi's willingness to go all out for their battle, stated that he would consider it a testament to his own skill if he were to kill Kakashi.

Zabuza ended the conversation with his Hiding in Mist Technique, summoning a thick veil of mist from the nearby lake in order to hide himself from the Sharingan. Kakashi ordered Team 7 to protect Tazuna, though Zabuza asserted that such protection was useless, instantly appearing in the center of their formation. As Zabuza was about to make an attack with his sword, Kakashi raced toward them and stabs Zabuza in the stomach with his kunai just before his stroke could fall. Water poured out of Zabuza's body and it collapsed into a puddle as the real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi, revealing that Zabuza had used the Water Clone Technique to fool Kakashi. Zabuza proceeded to slice Kakashi in half, but Kakashi's body too dissolved into water, surprising Zabuza as he realized that Kakashi's Sharingan must have copied the Water Clone Technique as Zabuza charged toward him. Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza, mocking him by saying that it was over.

To everyone's surprise, a second Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and grabbed him, and the first Zabuza reverted to a pool of water. Kakashi attempted to break free of Zabuza's grasp, but was instead thrown into the nearby lake. As he emerged, Zabuza trapped him within his Water Prison Technique, leaving Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to defend against another of Zabuza's clones. Kakashi told the Genin to run, but Naruto remembered the oath that he had made to himself, and entered the fight so that they could save Kakashi and keep Tazuna alive. Naruto created a number of shadow clones that proceeded to completely surround Zabuza's water clone. Zabuza's clone swung his sword, and the shadow clones scattered and disappeared, forcing the only remaining Naruto to reach into his backpack and pull out a fūma shuriken, which he gave to Sasuke. Sasuke, sensing Naruto's plan, hurled the fūma shuriken at Zabuza, who easily grabbed it from the air. To his surprise, a second shuriken was hiding in the shadow of the first due to Sasuke's Shadow Shuriken Technique, and Zabuza was forced to leap over it to avoid being damaged. Once past Zabuza, the second shuriken turned into Naruto, who had transformed himself. Naruto threw a kunai at Zabuza, who, unable to dodge it while maintaining the Water Prison Technique, was forced to release Kakashi from his prison in order to avoid the attack.

With Kakashi free, Zabuza was forced to commence their battle, and the two used multiple Water Release techniques against each other. Due to his Sharingan, Kakashi was able to take the upper hand and defeat Zabuza with Zabuza's own attack. Just as Kakashi was about to make the final blow, a masked ninja, later revealed to be named Haku, appeared to kill Zabuza by impaling Zabuza's neck with several senbon. After revealing himself to be a hunter-nin sent to kill Zabuza, he disappeared with Zabuza's body. Kakashi, momentarily satisfied with this turn of events, decided that it was time to continue escorting Tazuna home, only to collapse due to chakra exhaustion seconds later as a result of his overuse of the Sharingan. Kakashi is later seen bed ridden, and with a crutch as a result of this battle.

As all this was going on, none of them noticed the dark figure watching them from the distance, and had been stalking them ever since they left the village. This dark figure was the true Naruto, the one who had mastered the powers that had been given to him and had set out into the world to help it maintain balance. He had done so in quite a few ways in his time away. For starters he had killed the Mizukage who was under the control of another, yet the manipulation was too deeply ingrained into his mind so that there was no way to remove it so death was the only answer. Once killed, he transported the Biju to Hell where it could live out of the hands of humanity forever which it was glad about. He had taken the head of the former Mizukage and delivered it to the leader of the rebels Mei Terumi, who was shocked that someone so young had easily killed him. Naruto never revealed his identity even at her insistence since the rebels wanted to know the identity of their mysterious ally, but he wouldn't give in. Even when she tried to seduce him to do so he refused since his heart was set on only one woman in the world, Hinata Hyuga…

For the past several months while Naruto had waited for the perfect time to disperse the clone and take his rightful place, he had noticed her stalking him a lot of the time, and it intrigued him as to why she did so. So he did a bit of snooping of his own and came to the conclusion that she was in love with him, or at least had a crush on him. He made a mental note to express his feelings back to her when he stopped hiding in the shadows, which with his powers was fairly easy to do, even in broad daylight since he could walk the path of death which was only visible by spirits since it was their turf until the Shinigami came and collected them to take them to either heaven or hell. In that way, he could observe whoever he wanted without fear of detection and still see the world and its goings on…

Another thing he did was finding and killing the elusive Orochimaru. To be honest, Naruto had been fairly upset about that one since when someone is said to be elusive, you would think that they would be harder to find, yet it took him several hours to find him and only a few minutes to kill him. He put up a hell of a fight against him along with his second in command Kabuto, but their attacks phased through him, not doing any sort of damage, and Naruto then unleashed cloud of smoke that rapidly aged and decayed all who were within it, including Orochimaru himself…

But Naruto stopped reminiscing and once again followed the group…

Kakashi was taken to Tazuna's home for recovery, and as he rested he made the observation that Zabuza's apparent death was odd: when hunter-nin killed their target, they usually began to destroy it on the spot. On the other hand, the ninja whom they'd met had taken Zabuza's body elsewhere. This, coupled with the fact that Zabuza had been "killed" with senbon, weapons that were rarely fatal and also useful for knocking people out, led Kakashi to believe that Zabuza was still alive, and that he would be back to finish Tazuna's assassination. Elsewhere, Zabuza was revived by Haku, and, although he would need time to recover, he promised to crush Kakashi when next they met.

With Zabuza's return a likely outcome, Kakashi took Team 7 to the nearby woods for chakra training, and told them that the training would require them to learn to climb trees without using their hands. Naruto made the observation that this is impossible, but Kakashi, in crutches, managed to climb the tree with ease, and explained that the key to doing so was focusing chakra to the soles of the feet. The three Genin all made an attempt: Naruto, not using enough chakra, took only one step before falling back to the ground; Sasuke was able to make it a good distance up the trunk, though he damaged it as a result of using too much chakra; and Sakura, having perfect control over her chakra, made it to a high branch on her first attempt, finishing her training. For the boys, however, the training continues, and Naruto, still unable to make it far up the tree, asked Sakura for advice. Sakura complied, and Kakashi made the observation that Naruto was finally getting a good grasp on teamwork.

The real Naruto scoffed at this since the thing he did to train in his powers were far better forms of training than this simplistic garbage…

Sakura was left in charge of protecting Tazuna while Naruto and Sasuke continued their training. As Naruto began to catch up to Sasuke, Sasuke casually asked to know what advice Sakura had given Naruto, but Naruto, determined to beat Sasuke, refused to give it away. During dinner one night, Sakura asked about a torn picture that Inari, Tazuna's grandson, had been looking at. Tazuna explains that the man in the missing portion of the picture was Kaiza, Inari's "father", whom Inari had idolized and thought of as his biological parent, though Kaiza had adopted him. One day, years prior, a flood had threatened to destroy the village, and Kaiza had single-handedly managed to close the floodgates, earning him the title of "hero" amongst the villagers. Once Gatō came to the country, however, Kaiza's heroic deeds angered Gatō, and therefore Gatō had him executed in front of the villagers, including Inari. From that day forth, the villagers lost hope, and Inari was crushed, disbelieving the possible existence of a "hero". Naruto, determined to prove to Inari that there was such a thing as a hero, rushed off to continue his training.

As Naruto rested in the woods one day, he encountered Haku, though he was unaware of Haku's identity and thought him to just be a pretty girl. The two discussed their dreams: Naruto wished to become the Kage of his village, while Haku wanted to protect the person most precious to him, explaining that, when one was protecting a precious person, one's strength reached its maximum. Naruto agreed with this statement, remembering all of the people who had protected him. With that, Haku left, though not before confusing Naruto to no end by asserting that he was a boy. Haku then stopped as he felt the boy he was just talking to explode behind him into energy as the Kyuubi was resealed into the real Naruto. Haku was terrified by this and got a few senbon ready to attack just in case he needed them. He was shocked just as much as the fake Naruto was from his earlier comment on him being a boy to see a stronger version of Naruto standing there before him in a different outfit. Haku threw the senbon he had towards his neck, but Naruto didn't dodge them since they just phased through without harming him in anyway. Haku made out to attack him again, but Naruto held up his hands in a sign of peace and told him why he was there. He handed Haku a scroll that he had been given by Mei in the hopes that he could find and deliver it to Zabuza in his travels that told him of the civil wars end and the fact that he was being pardoned for any and all past crimes against the former Mizukage. Haku was surprised by this news and thanked him greatly for giving him such a thing. Naruto then told him to take his master and to go home, to live their lives without the fear of being hunted down anymore. Haku said that they would, and unknown to the both of them, they would never meet again in this life…

Naruto had then gone back to the house, where he was immediately questioned on where he got the new look since he was in the woods, and why did he look stronger than he did just a few days ago, Naruto had simply chuckled when asked that and answered the questions by saying that he always had the clothes but he had them sealed away since he never quite found he proper time to wear them, and the reason that he looked stronger was the fact that no one was really paying any sort of attention to him in the first place to notice what he looked like before and that he had looked like this for a while now. Kakashi looked at him with a skeptical look, but didn't sense any lies coming from him in any way. He did make a mental note to tell the Hokage once they got back since he was under the orders to make sure that Naruto didn't become too powerful to control and something in his gut told him that there was more happening here than he could see…

The next morning, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura escorted Tazuna to work at the bridge, leaving Naruto behind to rest. Back at Tazuna's house, two of Gatō's thugs arrived to kidnap Inari's mother. Inari, inspired by Naruto's training that he spied on when he wasn't looking, attempted to save his mother by himself. Just as he was about to be cut down by the thugs, Naruto appeared and defeated the two single-handedly quite easily. Naruto congratulated Inari for finally standing up for himself, and left to join the rest of his team, but he was in no real hurry since he sensed that both Zabuza as well as Haku had left the country during the night and were heading towards Mist and onwards towards a better life for themselves. So when Naruto arrived at the bridge, everything was going smoothly on their end since no one had attacked them in any way.

Elsewhere, Inari was going door-to-door in an attempt to rally support for taking down Gatō and his men. The villagers, not wanting to fight back anymore, refused, to which Inari replied that he would protect those that he loved, as crying wouldn't save anyone. Once he got home, Inari's mother pleaded for him not to go, but Inari insisted that, as Kaiza's son, he must fight. As he left the house, Inari was startled to find many shadowy figures surrounding his door.

As he was busy doing that, Gatō arrived with an army of his men to kill the bridge builder himself. The team got into position to defend Tazuna, but Naruto simply stepped ahead of them and unsealed his scythes out and powered them up. Gatō along with his men laughed that a child believed he could defeat them, yet that smirk disappeared from their faces as there was a quick glint of light from the suns reflection on his weapons, and then Naruto was behind them with his weapons to his sides in his outstretched hands. Seconds later, Gatō and his men's body's fell into pieces as their blood spilled everywhere. His team stood there speechless as Naruto thrust his arm to shake the blood off his weapons. It was at that time that Inari showed up with the people of Wave, ready to fight for their home, but they saw that Gatō and his men were already dead, and going by the fact that Naruto had his weapons out while the rest of his team were staring at him in pure shock told them that Naruto had been the one to kill them. The people of Wave celebrated their liberation from the tyrant, and as they did, Sasuke came up to him and demanded to be shown how Naruto had done that as well as where he had gotten his weapon from. Naruto told him no on the teaching part and lied that he found the weapons in a cave years ago and like his outfit he never really had the chance to use them until now. Sasuke demanded that he give him the weapons, but Naruto once again refused. It was then that Naruto sensed Kakashi was coming to most likely demand answers as well, so Naruto quickly shifted realms and walked away to their utter shock at his sudden disappearance. Naruto didn't want to be bothered by them and set out into the woods to a place where he had hidden away something for Inari since he saw that the boy had courage as well as potential. On the day that the bridge was built and the team was ready to go, they named the bridge the Great Naruto Bridge in honor of their hero, yet he was still nowhere to be seen. So the team left the village without him since they couldn't find him in any way. Inari headed home after they left and to his surprise he saw a large chest that had been placed within his room with a key on top and a note that told him to become stronger and with what was in the box he would be able to reach his true potential. When he used the key to open the box to see what was left for hi inside, he saw various books full of knowledge on an ancient order known as Demon Hunters, with the blueprints on how to craft their weapons, instructions on training, and a book of runes used by them in the past to become stronger as they mastered them. Inari would take what he learned from Naruto's gift and would in the future start a group of mercenaries called the Reaper Corp whose power would come to rival any of the shinobi in any village, since their village was a merchant city, why not also become merchants of death?

Naruto followed the group in the spirit realm the entire time since he knew that if he was in the mortal realm, that he would be hounded by Kakashi for where he learned his techniques from and Sasuke would just bitch and demand from him what wasn't his to have. And to make matters far worse than even that, Sakura would try to force him to since she was nothing more than a Uchiha fan girl, so in the spirit realm he remained, all the way back to the village itself and even onwards until they reach the Hokage and reported their mission's success. It was then that they went into detail about what they had seen Naruto do as he had single handedly killed off a small army faster than they could blink, and then just disappeared out of thin air. It was that last part that got the Hokage looking worried since Naruto wasn't supposed to learn how to use the Hirishin until his loyalty was assured in the future. But he calmed down when he was told by Kakashi that it wasn't what the thought it was since there was no flash; he just disappeared into thin air without a trace of any sort. Not even his dog summons could track him. The Hokage wasn't looking forward to telling the Council members this, but it was then that Naruto reappeared out of thin air just a mysteriously as he had appeared. He played it off as he had been abducted by a force that he had no idea what it was and they believed that since they had felt his power as he reappeared and they had never felt something like it before. He then went on to spin a false tale of horrors he had seen in this other place and he wished to take some time off from being a shinobi so as to get his nerves under control. The Hokage was at first skeptical about the idea since he wanted Naruto to be a weapon, but Naruto did look like he was a jumbled mess from what he was able to see. Naruto asked to be able to leave the village for at least a month, not to go to any other countries but to simply visit a Fire monk temple he had read about and saw that they had perfected ways to achieve inner peace, which at the moment was something that he stated that he desperately needed.

The Hokage called in the Council members as well as the Clan heads to explain what had happened during Wave, with those on the civilian side demanding that he teach Sasuke how to do as he did as well as giving him any and all weapon he had on him. Naruto surprisingly agreed to this, but only under the stipulation that he would be allowed to visit the Monks to find inner peace. The councils agreed to it with the guidelines that he would return in one month, or two if he needed the extra time just as long as he sent a message back stating as such. The shinobi council smirked at this since they knew that Danzo would capitalize on this moment to capture the boy and turn him into his personal weapon, so they agreed as well.

So Naruto went home and packed light for his trip and as he was walking towards the front gate he was met by Hinata herself, who was red in the face and was not able say anything only hand him a small cake that she had made for him in her spare time. Naruto graciously took it from her and reach into his pocket to give her a necklace in return, the metal came from the High Heavens themselves and glowed with a holy glow, while in the center of it was a red stone that glowed like a burning fire that was in fact a piece of Hell stone, which in itself wasn't able to corrupt anything, it was just a piece of stone from the depths of hell. When Naruto was gifted his new powers, he learned in time that he was able to ascend to the Heavens at will since his powers were of Angelic origin and he could also descend into Hell since the Kyuubi left trace amounts of demonic power when he was resealed into the clone. He did so to both region to get the materials of what he needed to make this one of a kind necklace that was in the form of a heart with the stone in the middle part, symbolizing that within Hinata's heart, there burned a great power. He gave this to her as he told her that he had always known that she was stalking him all this time, and at first he was curious as to why, but when he found out the why he knew he had feelings for her as well. So as to prove it to her, he kissed her on the lips, which caused her body to turn crimson as she kissed back. He then told her that while he will be gone for a while, he would be back, and he would always love her no matter what happened. Hinata just stood there as he walked through the gates towards his destination, and fainted with a smile on her face as soon as he was no longer visible…

Naruto walked at a moderate pace towards his fake destination, all the while knowing full well about the three dozen ROOT Nin that were following him under the orders on their master. It was three hours after he had left that he was hit in the neck with a needle coated in sleeping drugs, which honestly didn't affect him in the slightest since he was immune to any type of status ailment that could affect humans, including drugging of any sort. But he played into the part and 'fell' asleep where he stood. He felt the nin pick him up and take him to a secret entrance to their underground lair where he was put into a room where he was chained to the floor with seals of all sorts to keep him in place as well as disrupt his chakra as well so he couldn't escape. Naruto wasn't affected by any of them since his power wasn't chakra, but Angelic in nature and there was no way they could seal that, at least not without proper research into it and they would have to first know about it…

Danzo and his two lackeys came into his prison a few hours later with looks of triumph on their faces since they believed that Naruto was now theirs to control, yet Naruto just kept his eyes closed as he whistled a tune with not a care in the world. Danzo took this badly and began to slam his cane into Naruto's head in an attempt to force him to listen as well as look at him, yet Naruto was incapable of feeling pain, one of the many perks of being the new Angel of Death, so he just continued to whistle as Danzo tired himself out trying to force his eyes open. Danzo left the room but in his stead he sent in multiple ROOT members to deal with him, yet each failed since once again he felt no pain as well as all damage to his body was healed immediately. This went on for two weeks, the whole time Danzo was getting more and more annoyed at him for not giving him the respect he deserved. Danzo then unsealed his hidden arm as well as his head bandages to show that he had a Sharingan hidden behind them. It was then that Naruto stopped whistling and opened his eyes with a smirk. The smirk unnerved him for a second before he used his eye to try and control him, but Naruto laughed as he used his power to easily break through the chains and seals, and with a quick swipe with his scythes, he cut Danzo diagonally in half. Danzo died in pain as his men rushed in to attack him, but just as Danzo was, they too were cut down easily. Once all of the ROOT had been slaughtered as well as his two lackeys on the shinobi council, he turned around to address Danzo that he knew had used the powers he had stolen from the Senju as well as the Uchiha to cheat death. Danzo claimed that he would make him submit in the end, yet Naruto replied that he wouldn't get the chance as the Shinigami appeared behind Danzo and ripped out his soul; doing so closed all the eyes in his grafted arm as well as cause it to shrivel up and die. During the years that Naruto had been away, he had met the Shinigami himself and told him about Malthael's demise after giving him his powers. He then requested a trade for his father's soul's freedom from his clutches, which he agreed to if he could kill Orochimaru as well as Danzo since both of them had done such crimes against nature that he wanted them to suffer under his power personally. And he had just delivered the second one to him, since when he cut Danzo in half, he infused trace amounts of the same power the Shinigami had that basically marked Danzo for death by the hands of the Shinigami, and not even his stolen power could negate having his soul torn from his body.

Naruto then set up the next part of his plan by flaring his massive power outwards to basically be a beacon to everyone in Konoha, and like he wanted them to they arrive within the hour in the underground lair. The Hokage was angry since he had been secretly supporting Danzo by allowing him to keep ROOT as long as he used it to help the village, and now his shadow forces had been all slaughtered by the boy that should have been weak yet wasn't. So he ordered Naruto's arrest, and placed chakra suppression seals as well as cuffs on him and had him escorted to a prison cell. He sent word to the Fire Daimyo that their plan had not worked and that Naruto was too strong to control, so he was ordered by the Daimyo to have a woman conceive an Uzumaki child so that when Naruto was killed, he would be able to reseal the Kyuubi. So they sent in Hinata, who they knew had feelings for Naruto to impregnate with an extracted bit of his seed, which once it was confirmed, they kept her under lock and key so as to not endanger their future weapon in anyway. While Naruto could have broken free at any time in the nine months he was locked up, he didn't really have the need to since he needed to wait for the next part of his plan. And once the baby was born, he was taken from his mother after the cord was cut, and Hinata was too tired to fight them to claim her child back. The Hyuga Elder came into her room later and injected her with poison so that she died in her sleep. But as her spirit left her mortal body, The Shinigami was there to guide her not to either heaven or hell, but to an undisclosed location that Naruto had set up with his help that would grant a spirit life once more if they had the rune to activate it, which so happened to be etched into the back of the necklace he had given her, which she used and was told to head towards Wave when she dressed up in the clothes that were left for her and of course wait for a few hours for her guest to arrive. Naruto had planned on this long ago and set this all up to protect her since no one would be looking for a dead woman after her death since that would just be insane o think they were somehow still alive. Yet out of all the clothes left for her, the thing that surprised her the most was that the necklace given to her by Naruto was there as well cause she didn't have it on her when she died, since it had been unknowingly sealed to her so that only she may possess it, and when she saw it she remembered the promise that Naruto had made and felt happiness rise up within her…

The Hokage then used Jiraiya to extract the Kyuubi into the newborn child, the entire time Naruto just had a smirk on his face as he had given orders to Kyuubi on what to do when it happened. As soon as he was sealed into the newborn, who he decided to name Malthael after the Angel that had made his life possible to become the way it was, Kyuubi used the rune given to him to teleport the child to the cave that his mother was in, and at the same time, releasing him from captivity as well by sending him personally to Hell itself, where he began immediately to torture the souls of any and all humans that were in front of him. The Hokage was pissed that the sealing had ended as it did and demanded to know where the child had gone. Naruto laughed as he demanded to know and told him that he had no way of knowing that since his power was sealed and the Biju was out of his body, so how could he do anything to his child?

It was then that they prepared Naruto for transport, with a large portion of the people in the village following behind the wheeled cage he was in, throwing objects at him as well as insults towards him the entire way. As he had done to Danzo, he just whistled as they made their way to the Fire capital city where the Fire Daimyo had set up a massive area for his public execution. The Civilian council, who had all gone to see his death, took their sets as did everyone else of higher power, while the rest of the people cheered to see the monster be finally killed Naruto just chucked at their idiocy since he no longer even contained the Kyuubi and yet they still saw him as a monster in the end. It would seem that humanity had gained the arrogance of their ancestors the Angels that forsook their power to form the new humanity. As soon as the clan heads arrived and took their seats, the people calmed down as the Fire Daimyo stood up and announced his crimes to the people, which included treason to Konoha as well as killing loyal Konoha Shinobi.

Naruto laughed as he heard these charges against him to the point that everyone heard him laugh. He called them all fools for believing the crap he was spouting and went on to explain everything wrong with the charges against him. He claimed that Naruto was an out of control demon who had become too much of a threat to control, yet Naruto stated how the demon was no longer sealed within his body anymore so how could anyone still see him as a monster when the monster they hated wasn't even there? Then there were the charges of treason as well as killing off loyal shinobi. Naruto told them what Danzo had done by kidnapping him and attempting to break him so that he could control him and use him as a weapon to seize control of the world. And that in the end that even the Fire Daimyo would perish if his plans had come to fruition since Danzo wasn't the type of man to share power with anyone and would eventually kill not only him, but any and all of his family that could make any attempt to take back the throne from him. But it was then that Naruto laughed once again and explained why he was doing so, since he knew that this whole thing was nothing more than a huge charade. He stated that he knew why the Fire Daimyo was doing this since he wanted what was not his in the first place such as the fortunes left behind by his parents that he should have had access to years ago instead of living off scraps, or Whirlpool itself since only one of Uzumaki blood can claim it or if they are the last of their clan, sell it. He told him that he knew of his plan to wait until he was made completely loyal to the village so that he could arrive and have Naruto sign away is inheritance after some honey sweet lies about a small amount of money that wasn't even 0.000001% of the amount of money that was his to claim left to him from someone that he had to sign for were told to him to get him to sign. That if things had gone as planned that not only would his fortune be lost, but Whirlpool as well, and he wouldn't have a clue since he would never have been told.

The Fire Daimyo paled as he heard Naruto speak his master plan out loud, but he wasn't finished. Naruto went on to say that there were three major factors that would prevent him from ever claiming such things for himself and that his filthy greedy hands would never so much as touch a single cent of his money. His first factor was that no one in his employ had the power to kill him no matter how hard they tried or even what they did to attempt it. The second was that when he had learned all about their secret plans to manipulate and control him, he made a clone to fool them into thinking that they were succeeding in their endeavors, but in reality they were wasting so much time and effort trying to manipulate a boy that no longer existed in a sense, and as he was free to roam the world because of that he had gone to the bank itself and easily gotten into the Uzumaki as well as Namikaze vaults since he was of their blood and sealed away to a place they would never find for as long as they lived all that was in it so that on the off chance someone figured out a way to break into it, they would get nothing for their troubles. The third and last factor was that he wasn't the only Uzumaki alive, since he had found others so killing him wouldn't do him any good since Whirlpool still wouldn't be his. The Fire Daimyo was absolutely livid with rage at this point to hear that all the years of planning to get his hands on both of those two enormous fortunes as well as all the resources from Whirlpool had failed. So he ordered his men to begin the execution, but stopped when they all felt a surge of power around them. Four of the Six of Nagato's Paths showed up and encased themselves in a square purple energy shield, which then expanded outwards and sealed up the entire area so no one could leave the area.

Naruto had found where the Akatsuki had been located when he was 9, and even though he didn't master his abilities until he was 10 he was still more than a match for them. He came and demanded that they stop what they were doing at once for it was upsetting the Balance of the world, but they fought him instead of listen. Out of all who were within the organization, only three were still alive, which were Itachi since he had helped Naruto in his youth before he had gone rouge after killing his family, Nagato since he was family, as well as Konan since she was pure soul. It took a while to explain who he was, but in the end he got the three of them on his side, as well as introduced Nagato to Karen their other surviving clan member who he found when he assaulted Orochimaru's lair. So now his cousin was doing his part of Naruto's master plan which was to get the strongest people out of the village as a distraction so that in their absence that they wouldn't be able to properly defend Konoha from the attack that was happening in their absence. And then it was to seal them in this field so they couldn't escape Naruto's power once trapped.

Naruto then used his powers to easily break from his restraints and seals, and as he did the same types of wings that had once spanned behind Malthael were now donned by Naruto, his hood up so that the darkness covered his face. Those nearest to him attempted to strike him down, but he summoned his scythes and cut them down where they stood flawlessly. He then walked up to the cowering Fire Daimyo, who at this point pissed himself in fear, and simply snapped his fingers. Once he did, dead hands sprung from the ground and pulled him into a fiery portal that appeared under him into the fiery depths of Hell to suffer for all eternity for his greed, one of the seven deadly sins. The Hokage as well as Jiraiya took this opportunity to try and strike him down, but each was stopped by a couple of needles in their necks that caused them to fall forward. They were shocked to see Shizune there as well as standing next to Naruto as his ally of all things. Jiraiya demanded to know why she did this, and for that matter where was Tsunade?

Shizune explained to them that Naruto had found them years ago in disguise and got Tsunade extremely drunk, since she was not one to pass up free alcohol, and once drunk enough he asked her questions about Naruto. She had gone into a drunken rant about her hatred for the brat and how she would make him suffer when she saw him in the future for killing Kushina. At that point Naruto had heard enough and teleported them to the woods where he proceeded to cut off her head and crush it underneath his foot. He kneeled down to pick up the gem that had been in her forehead as Shizune prepared to attack him as well as demanded to know why he did that in the first place. Naruto reveled his identity to her as well as the fact that the gem she had in her head was of demonic origin. That it gave Tsunade her youthful look by sapping the life force of another. That if he hadn't intervened that she would have died in about five years from having her life force sucked dry. He then crushed the gem, causing the life force in Tsunade's dead body to return to Shizune so that she was no longer in danger of dying sooner than expected. Shizune had been an ally of Naruto ever since…

Shizune then took a kunai and stabbed Jiraiya in the head as well as twisted the blade since she really hated perverts. Naruto walked up to the Hokage and told him that before he died, that he wanted him to know something. That all those he called teachers or friends in the past hated him for his actions in the later years of his life. His teachers hated him. Naruto's parents hated him. Even his own wife hated him not only for his actions against Naruto but since he had turned Asuma into the same type of monster that he was, that their eldest was spared from such a thing only because he died before he could be corrupted by him. That all his plans were utter failures, that the so called God of Shinobi was outplayed by a fourteen year old child who he had tried to control. The Hokage growled in anger as he was told all this and told Naruto that Kami himself would smit him in the end for his actions, to which Naruto chuckled as did Shizune. Naruto then took his scythes and arranged them in a way that the Hokage's heat was in the curves and it encased his entire neck. As he did, he leaned in close and whispered something into his ear that sent chills up his spine…

Kami is dead, I killed him myself…

Then Naruto quickly decapited the body. Once done there, he then stood up and nodded to Shizune, who got the message and did the hand signs to encase herself in a protective bubble. Once done, Naruto released the same cloud that he had done to kill Orochimaru, and it slowly consumed everyone trapped within the field…

(Epilogue -10 years later)

The world had regained balance once more after Naruto had done what he did. His attack on the Fire Capitol was only the beginning as he had used his powers to turn those he killed into the forces of his Reapers, which he used to wage war with the other shinobi villages, sans Suna and Mist, since they had surrendered peacefully and submitted to the stipulations given to them. The others had been wiped out with small amounts of people surviving and submitting as well. The Daimyos of the countries were killed and the land was formed into a new empire under the leadership of one woman name Koyuki, who Naruto had helped regain her rightful place on the throne by killing her tyrant of an uncle. Within one year, the land had become the Spring Empire; with the technology that Spring had given to everyone so as to improve the lives of the people. The Jinchuriki were no more, not because they were dead, but because Naruto had done as he had promised to Kyuubi years ago and sent them into Hell itself to live out their dreams of making the people wo tortured their containers suffer for eternity…

At this moment of time, Naruto was living a quiet happy life in the village on the outskirts of Wave since the main part of it had become an industrial area due to all the trading and shipping done there with his wife Hinata, as well as their three kids, two boys and a newborn daughter. They were happy and content with their lives, and to think that all it would take to make their lives this great was the help of a single angel…

(A/N: Damn this one went longer than I expected! If you are wondering what happened in the High Heavens after Kami was killed, well it's simple since now the council from the game has reformed keeping order there. And if you are wondering about the fates of any specific character, PM me or ask in a review and I will tell you where they are now.)


End file.
